IT Observer - Spimming for Dollars

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Spimming for Dollars
Author: Jeremy C. Wright, Staff Writer
Monday, 01 November 2004, 18:02 GMT

Today's new word, for all you dictionary freaks, is "spim". Spam + IM (Instant Messaging) = Spim. IM Spam. And for many IM companies it is the bane of their existence requiring increasingly aggressive filtering and block list capabilities. Spim is just about as effective as an advertising method as a drive-by shooting.

However, because the cost is currently so low, and the potential audience (hundreds of millions of users for the largest IM providers) so large, the "spimmers" have been having a field day. A recent study found that ICQ, one of the largest IM networks, was receiving 1.2 billion spim messages per day.

Last week, America Online (AOL) launched the second Spim lawsuit in history. The first was filed by Microsoft late last year in King County against a Canadian man alleged to have sent spam over Microsoft popular MSN Messenger IM network (PDF). Microsoft has been breathing a sigh of relief recently, as their IM network has so far been the target of a very small amount of Spim. This is thanks in large part to the "reverse list" empowers users to allow or deny anyone from sending them messages and from adding them to buddy lists.

For the other IM companies though, Spim is a very real problem. AOL's lawsuits are currently targetting more than 20 individuals according to their IP addresses. In addition, AOL has filed suit against 10 other individuals AOL claims are "peddling controlled substances, including Vicodin and other pharmaceuticals."

The effort by AOL is part of a larger initiative to attempt to curb spam in all it's forms, IM or otherwise, by the world's largest email providers including Microsoft and EarthLink. The lawsuits are being brought under the CAN-SPAM law that went into effect earlier this year. While these lawsuits may not stop spam entirely, they may change the economics of spam such that only the most aggressive spammers or spimmers feel it is worth the risk of aggravating companies like AOL.

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